Camping at Dominguez Canyon

Last weekend we took our first camping trip of the year to Dominguez Canyon, where we had gone hiking last September. We left home on Saturday morning and drove 35 miles to get to the campground, a primitive BLM site with no water, no toilet paper, and no fee, though it did have picnic tables and clean outhouses. There were a few other people camped there, but we found a site surrounded by lots of shrubs and trees so it felt very private.


There was a small creek running past our campsite with a cheerful burble. Cailan discovered the creek while we were setting up our tent and was having fun throwing sticks into the water. I was watching him as we worked on the tent but could see that the creek wasn't very deep and wasn't moving very fast, so my worry-meter was reading pretty low.


As I was wiggling one of the tent poles into its nylon sleeve, I watched Cailan take another step closer to the water and - just as I was inhaling to call out and tell him to step back - SPLASH! Cailan tumbled into the creek.

Chris and I flew into action. I ran to the creek where Cailan was now sitting in the shallow water, scared, wet and crying, while Chris unearthed some pack towels. I hurried to strip the wet clothes off Cailan; it was a bit chilly and, more to the point, quite windy, and his little 30-pound body was shivering with cold. We soon had him dried off and into a set of clean clothes - fortunately his clothes are still so tiny that it's easy to pack a few spares. After some time snuggling on my lap, and a chocolate cookie, Cailan was warm and happy and ready to throw some more sticks.

First, though, we took a hike in Dominguez Canyon. It was much cooler than the first time we hiked there, so it was far more pleasant. We also didn't have to worry about Utah overheating, so we were able to keep more of our water to ourselves. Cailan started out on my back, pointing out every yucca plant that we passed, and there were a lot of them. Dominguez Canyon seems to be some kind of yucca utopia. He did hike for a while by himself. He likes to pick up a stick, identify it as some kind of dinosaur, and then get so involved in watching the dinosaur stick and spinning a story around it that he forgets to watch the trail and wanders off it into a rock, or a patch of fragile cryptobiotic crust, or a yucca.

He passed a milestone on this hike: his first outside, standing up, non-diapered, pee onto the ground. It was a major effort, and somehow all three of us had a role to play in the endeavor, what with all the jackets and pants that had to be removed (having plunged one pair of 2T pants into a creek, we were being extra careful to keep the remaining pairs dry): I was serving as coat rack while Chris acted as coach. Utah stood by patiently until it had been accomplished and then did his part by sniffing excitedly and then adding his own scent to the rocky ground.

We went a bit further into the canyon than last time, and Chris carried Cailan on his back for the return trip. By evening the wind had settled down, so we were able to enjoy cooking our dinner over the camp stove. After that we had a walk, first down to the creek and over the footbridge. We did some rock-throwing, and found flowers growing in the shady canopy of the banks.




Then we walked up a steep dirt road until we had a nice view into the canyon, with a slowly-dwindling patch of bright red rock lit up by the setting sun.